Gracie Guide: Special Friends Learn About Recycling by Headline Books / Zoom Into Books

Gracie’s Guide:

Special Friends Learn About Recycling

Angie Wilson

Illustrated by Ashley Teets Headline Kids an imprint of Headline Books, Inc Terra Alta, WV

Gracie’s Guide: Special Friends Learn About Recycling by Angie Wilson illustrated by Ashley Teets copyright ©2020Angie Wilson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books. To order additional copies of this book, for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P.O. Box 52, Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.HeadlineBooks.com Tel: 304-789-3001 Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com Headline Kids is an imprint of Headline Books www.AuthorAngieWilson.com ISBN-13: 9781951556150

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S O F A M E R I C A

Dedication This book is dedicated to my grandson, Ryker Crawford, whose smile lights up an entire room, hugs are the best, and heart is full of unconditional love. God has taught me so much through you! A special thanks to everyone at St. Francis Service Dogs for their hard work and dedication in providing exceptional service dogs to those in need.

It was Thursday afternoon, and everyone in Gracie’s fifth-grade classroom knew what that meant, ‘School Project Day.’ It was a time of the week that everyone eagerly awaited. The three fifth-grade classes and the special education classes joined together as a team to work on special projects. The team could use the computer labs, the gym, or work on their projects outside.

Students with disabilities were paired with students without disabilities to work in small groups. Each group received a topic and were asked to use technology to create a video or a presentation on the subject. When everyone had completed their project, the entire school would get to see their creation. Gracie was thrilled when Ms. T., her teacher, placed her good friends Henderson and Bailey in her group. They met in the gym where Meredith and Ryker joined them. The subject of the new project was recycling. Each group had to create a commercial that encouraged people to quit being wasteful and to make a choice to recycle.

Meredith has what is called an ‘invisible disability’ which means her condition is hidden; no one can tell. There are some disabilities you can see and some you cannot see. She has limitations that make it hard for her to learn like the other kids, but she’s not in a wheelchair or anything like that. Ryker has a ‘visible disability.’ Due to a sickness when he was a baby, his brain was permanently damaged. This affected his ability to learn and comprehend things, and it also caused weakness on one side of his body. One arm is very weak, it mostly just hangs by his side because he can’t use it, and one leg isn’t as strong as the other, so he walks with a limp. He has a service dog that helps him everywhere he goes. Even though Meredith and Ryker have weaknesses, they also have strengths. They are a lot of fun to be around, they enjoy making people laugh, and they love pizza and junk food just like any other kid. Ms. T. says kids with disabilities are the same as kids without disabilities—a kid is a kid. She said that everyone has things they are good at and things they are not good at, we have to look close enough to find the good in everyone.

Gracie’s group was called, ‘The Fancy Five’ because they were placed with the reading teacher, Ms. Fancy. Her last name isn’t Fancy, but she always uses big, fancy vocabulary words, so everyone in the whole school calls her ‘Ms. Fancy’. The Fancy Five decided they were going to plan a field trip to the local recycling center in town where they would make a video of how they turn trash into treasure. The trip was scheduled for the following week and Gracie was super-excited about it as she counted down the days until the next School Project Day. On the morning of the field trip, Ms. Fancy had necklaces made for all the Fancy Five. The necklaces had a card with a word written on them, a fancy word, of course. The students had to look for the word on their card and learn the definition of it. Gracie looked at the words on the cards of her friends; they were, “landfill, packaging, reuse, and reduce.” She looked at her word and it was the biggest, fanciest word of all, ‘biodegradable.’ This was going to be the best day ever!

The Fancy Five didn’t notice when the bus drove right past the recycling center. They ended up a few miles out of town. Everyone got off the bus and immediately covered their noses. What in the world was that odor? It was gross with a capital ‘G’! Ms. Fancy had a little whiteboard with her and she wrote a word on the board and held it up for them to read. It said, ‘horrendous.’ She told them the odor was horrendous. The Fancy Five didn’t need a dictionary to look up that word. They figured it out-it was horrible!

She explained to them they were at the landfill, the place where all the trash from town was taken and buried between layers of dirt. The manager of the landfill took them for a drive around the place in an old van. Meredith used her tablet to take some pictures and videos of the mountains of trash. They learned that some of the trash is biodegradable, which means it can degrade or break down and become part of the soil. If we have garbage that is not biodegradable, such as plastic, glass, and aluminum cans, then it creates a problem. A banana peel is biodegradable and takes about three days to decay, but a plastic bottle will take hundreds of years. A disposable diaper can take 500-600 years to break down! The manager stopped at a big mountain of trash and put the windows in the van down. Henderson got so sick at the odor, he almost threw up. They couldn’t wait to get away from that place. Ms. Fancy wrote two words on her whiteboard, landfill and biodegradable. They discussed the meaning so the students who had those words on their necklace would remember. As they traveled from the landfill to the recycling center, Ms. Fancy wrote, ‘reduce’ on her board. She explained the meaning and taught a lesson on how they can reduce or decrease the amount of trash they use. Bailey kept notes so they could add the information to their video. Ms. Fancy wrote ‘packaging’ on her board and they learned the importance of buying things with less packaging and to have less paper waste. “Some steps are easy steps,” she said as she erased her board and wrote ‘reuse’ on it. “Reuse means to use something again. An easy way to start is to pack your lunch in reusable containers or to use a refillable water bottle.” The Fancy Five was learning some valuable lessons. The processing center was an amazing place. They saw how the trash was separated, sorted, and melted. This center worked on plastic. Each type of plastic was crushed and melted into long rods that are sent to other factories to form new products. The Fancy Five toured the center, interviewed the workers, and saw pictures of new products that had been made from the plastic. They were surprised at the pictures. Who knew t-shirts and sleeping bags could be made from recycled plastic? It was a wonderful day of learning for the group.

They left the center and stopped by the local mall for lunch. As Ms. Fancy and the group walked through the mall, Gracie noticed that people were staring at them. At first, she tried to brush it off, but when it continued, she just didn’t get it. It seemed they were looking at Ryker. What was up with that? Was it his service dog? As they were ordering their food at the food court, Gracie overheard a little girl ask her mom, “What’s wrong with him?” her heart sunk when she saw the little girl point at Ryker. The girl’s mom took her by the hand and pulled her away. They even left the food area. They ate their burgers and fries and talked about all the amazing things they’d learned already. They looked at their trash and cringed when they realized what was at their table would probably end up at the landfill. “We have to do something about all of this trash. It is taking over our town!” Gracie exclaimed. “It’s not taking over, but we need to be more aware of making good choices to reduce and reuse,” Ms. Fancy said. Meredith got up to get more ketchup, but when she saw a group of guys at the dispenser, she froze. She just stood and looked at them. They didn’t know why she was just standing there looking at them. Bailey jumped up to help Meredith because she knew she didn’t like being around people she didn’t know. Finally, they got their ketchup and left. As the boys walked away, Bailey heard one of them call Meredith a ‘retard.’ It was the worse thing Bailey had ever experienced.

As the group returned to the bus, Gracie and Henderson walked with Ryker. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw someone imitating the way he walked. At this point, Gracie was ready to explode in anger on the guy. She felt Ms. Fancy grab her arm to make sure she didn’t say or do something she shouldn’t. The ride back to the school was super quiet. Although it was a great trip and they learned a lot of things, Gracie, Bailey, and Henderson were shocked at how their friends with special needs were treated in public. Meredith and Ryker were just at the mall to eat and have a good time like everyone else, but they were stared at, called a horrible name, and made fun of because they ‘were different.’ Ryker didn’t realize he was being made fun of, but Meredith knew. She was quieter than ever the rest of the day. 15

During the next few weeks, the Fancy Five prepared their commercial. They presented it in front of the entire school and it was a hit. Gracie asked Ms. Fancy if she could talk about what else the group had learned as a part of the trip and she agreed. “The Fancy Five is a team. A good team. We worked together and had so much fun learning about recycling,” Gracie said as she held up her refillable water bottle and everyone clapped, “But we learned a bigger lesson on our field trip. We learned how to show respect to EVERYONE. We saw how people made fun of two of our team members and it hurt all of us. We show respect to people with disabilities by being patient, kind, not avoiding them or rejecting them, but including them. A good person does not stare at other people, call them names, or make fun of anyone. We learned the best way to be a good person is to treat everyone the same.” Ms. Fancy explained to the students that people with disabilities should be treated the same as people without disabilities. She also talked about namecalling and how hurtful our words can be to others. She shared how everyone is unique and special and should be treated that way. She expressed to them the need to be kind to people of all abilities. The Fancy Five not only learned about recycling, but an important lesson on how to treat their friends with special needs who want to be happy and feel accepted just like everyone does. They decided to spread the word, so they made posters to hang around the school. They had used Ms. T.’s words to help spread the word about treating everyone the same.

Unscramble each of the clue words. Copy the letters in the numbered cells to other cells with the same number.

Fancy Five, Reuse, Landfill, Packaging, Biodegradable Friends

Look for the GOOD in EVERYONE!

The entire school cheered when they held their message up for everyone to see. The posters said, “look for the good in everyone.” And that’s what The Fancy Five did— every single day!

Write your own slogan!

Draw a picture of three ways you can recycle.

Decorate this page with Gracie’s slogan: Look for the good in everyone!

Crossword Puzzle 1 2 3 4 5 6

Across 2 What was the name of Gracie's group? (two words) 5 What word was on Gracie's necklace? 6 What kind of dog did Ryker have? (two words) 8 What did Ms. Fancy make for the students to wear on the field trip?

Down 1 What were the students asked to use to create their presentation? 3 What nickname did the teacher have in the story? (two words) 4 Where was the first place Ms. Fancy took the group on the field trip? 7 What word means to use again?

Word Bank service dog fancy five

landfill Ms. Fancy

necklaces technology

biodegradable reuse

Word Search UNGHTJOJQZWRIBILABPWUFMN DYNEAMNFZPVEELGACVIPYMEC PGNCDKTKFSAPYTBDPYNSCKYS RQSHRZCNMAGCQTKZZJIOOSHS BTUIQUSDAHNFKYKJYYKDOEER VJYDAISLYKBCAAESFKSYNGER BFOAHLFVOLHRYKGQZUIFESZE BVHLAMEGLTJLEFXIIEKOPAXF LANDFILLKSPUOAIVNIQEQDEI EJQCZYHCXHKNGNSVDGCRVTZL QGWKDIWEPVQJUZYYETEFCRRL BTTDKRNCVKIEDGZVKUYPGEJA LVSKVWEUDUPXSGSISRLBEAXB YSRBTVFDZDDUSXPEDPTKNSGL GECITIUELLSQEJHZXESYRUVE SRFTUVORTVWBIAWSHSZCWROP MVLAJWQCYXODUFLHAKBPUECO CIJYQXNSKQDVOMWXURVCBXAX I C T J M HK Q H O R R E N D O U S T Q C Z B W ZEWEZCIEQQRRNKXKDEMLDMUV YDTHASVTIPLAICREMMOCUDLU WOSQGMELBADARGEDOIBUDVAU MGFFIUCINMYYDLLEUWLDYZRA NIKPOFLMWUGBUYGSQNXYKWYG team horrendous reuse treasure Fancy Five 24

respect biodegradable packaging trash service dog

refillable reduce landfill vocabulary commercial

Can you get the trash to the can?

Kids Who Might Need Extra Help Isn’t every kid special? We think so. But what do we mean when we say “kids with special needs”? This means any kid who might need extra help because of a medical, emotional, or learning problem. These kids have special needs because they might need medicine, therapy, or extra help in school — stuff other kids don’t typically need or only need once in a while. Maybe you know of kids in your school who need a wheelchair or use braces when they walk. Those kids have special needs. They not only need the equipment that helps them get around, but they might need to have ramps or elevators available. They also might need to get a special bus to school — one that lifts them up into the bus so they don’t have to get up the steps. You might be able to spot a few kids with special needs, but you probably don’t notice all of them. A kid could have a problem that isn’t noticeable unless you know the person well.

What’s Life Like for a Kid With Special Needs? Life can be extra-challenging for a kid with special needs. It might be harder to do everyday stuff — like learning to read or, if a person has physical handicaps, just getting around school or the mall. The good news is that parents, doctors, nurses, therapists, teachers, and others can help. The goal is to help kids be as independent as possible. Other kids also can be a big help. How? By being a friend. Kids who need a wheelchair or have other health problems want friends just like you do. But meeting people and making friends can be tough. Some kids might tease them or make fun of them. Be sure to tell a teacher if you see someone being bullied or teased. That’s a very lonely feeling. Also try to be helpful if you know someone with special needs. Ask if they would like help with carrying their books or opening a door. Ask them to join you and your friends at lunch. It’s important not to be “overly helpful” when no help is needed. Why? Because just like you, kids with special needs like to be as independent as they can be. Being friendly to kids with special needs is one of the best ways to be helpful. As you get to know them, they may help you understand what it’s like to be in their shoes. And you’ll be helping fill a very special need, one that everybody has — the need for good friends.

Recycling What does it mean to be green? “Green” is more than just a color. It also means taking special steps to protect the environment — the water, the land, and the air we breathe. Why green? Plants are green, and without them the Earth wouldn’t be such a lovely home for us human beings. Every day, people make choices that affect the amount of trash and pollution that gets produced in our world. What can you do? A whole lot, actually. Here’s a four-step guide to being green: 1.Reduce the amount of stuff you use and throw away. 2.Reuse stuff when you can. 3.Recycle cans, bottles, paper, books, and even toys. 4.Enjoy the Earth — walk in the woods, plant a tree, and eat some of the delicious food it produces.

Reduce It! When you use less of something, you do a good thing for the Earth. For instance, a shorter shower means you used less water and less fuel since your house uses fuel to run the water heater that warmed up the water. Here’s a list of other stuff you can reduce: · Turn off lights you’re not using. Better yet, encourage your parents to switch to energy efficient light bulbs, like compact fluorescent light (CFL) or light emitting diodes (LED). They last longer and use less energy. The CFLs should be recycled and do need to be disposed of properly, though, so make sure your mom or dad helps if one breaks. · Turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth. · When you can, walk or ride your bike instead of riding in a car. You’ll use less gas — and get some exercise! · Unplug the chargers for your phone and MP3 player when you’re not using them. · Put your computer to “sleep” instead of leaving it on with the screensaver running.

Reuse It! Sometimes people call ours a “throwaway society.” That means that we’re a little too willing to throw away old stuff and buy new stuff. Many times, even if you no longer need something, someone else just might. For instance, if your baby brother outgrows his plastic basketball hoop, why not give it to another family who has a little kid? That’s one less plastic basketball set that they need to buy. It’s also one less large plastic toy that needs to be produced, packaged, and shipped to the toy store. Here are some other ways to reuse the stuff you have: · Choose reusable travel cups instead of disposable paper or plastic cups. · Take your own bags — preferably reusable ones — when you go to the grocery store. · Drink tap water instead of buying bottled water. If you don’t like how your tap water tastes, a low-cost filtration system could make a difference. Get a reusable water bottle so you can take it with you. · Organize a swap among your friends. What can you swap? Books, toys, even clothes. It’s a way for everyone to get something new without spending any money and without throwing a bunch of stuff away. Set aside some items for your swap when you’re cleaning your room! · Take paper from your computer printouts and use the other side for more computer printing or just to draw or doodle on.

Recycle It! Recycling has never been easier. Many communities will pick it up right in front of your house and some towns even require it. Tell your mom or dad you want to become “Chief of Recycling” for your household. That means you’ll organize the recyclable items in bins, remember to put them on the curb on recycling day, and help remind others which items can be rinsed and recycled. By separating plastic bottles, cans, bottles, and more, you’re reducing the amount of trash that goes to the landfill. What’s a landfill? A big mountain of trash, where all the trash trucks go to dump their loads. Recycled goods go instead to a recycling center, where they can be crushed, broken down, and later turned into new cans, bottles, and paper. © 1995-2019. The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth®. Reprinted with permission.

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